


Moo

by Truth



Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-31
Updated: 2010-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-14 06:29:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/146369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truth/pseuds/Truth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it's better to simply believe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moo

Really, there was no excuse for it. Alice fought the urge to stamp her foot and instead firmly tucked her hands into the pockets of her pinafore. “It was merely a dream,” she told the smile hanging in the air above the stile that she’d only just that moment set her foot on.

“Was it?” The smile, eerily, didn’t move with the words, and a pair of wide eyes slowly came into view above it. “Merely, I mean.”

“It was a dream,” she persisted stubbornly, putting up her chin.

“That doesn’t address the issue of ‘merely’.” The eyes blinked slowly. “You should learn to be more particular in choosing your words.”

“I shan’t argue with you.” Alice pulled her hands from her pockets and waved them at the smile, even as a head formed around it. “You are terribly in the way, or at least I think you are. Shoo.”

“Terribly in the way?” The Cheshire Cat tilted its head in a very disconcerting manner, as there was still no body beneath it. “Am I so terrible, then? I suppose I should roar. To keep up with appearances, you understand.”

“You haven’t any appearances,” Alice pointed out, becoming indignant. “You have only disappearances that go backward. In any case, you can’t possibly be here in the meadow as you are only a memory of a very strange dream.”

“You have hurt my feelings,” The Cheshire Cat declared, still smiling as his stripes faded slowly into view. “You would rather walk through this very dull series of meadows and converse with creatures whose enlightened discourse consists of repeating the word ‘moo’ at random intervals than stop and chat with me?”

“But you’re not real,” Alice protested. Her head was starting to hurt a little as she tried to focus on the slowly appearing cat. She wished he would hurry up and disappear again before someone came and found her talking to a cat. Well, most of a cat. “You don’t belong here.”

“Perhaps I don’t at that.” The stripes slowly filled in as his tail appeared, wrapped neatly around his feet. “Do you wish me to leave?”

“Yes,” Alice declared stoutly, waving her hands again.

“Then I shall,” he told her, tipping his head and still smiling that terribly disconcerting smile. “But remember that you chose to send me away, when you are reduced to conversing with wandering cattle.”

“Why whatever do you mean?” Alice cried.

It was too late, the disappearance had already begun. “It isn’t every little girl who is allowed to see such things,” his voice told her as he faded rapidly, bit by bit, as if erased by some passing artist. “Perhaps it’s for the best.”  



End file.
